Embodiments of the present invention relate to grants management systems and methods, and in particular, grants management systems and methods that handle administrative and financial requirements of one or more sponsors.
Between organizations, a “grant” represents a legal obligation on which a sponsor organization typically commits a predetermined sum of money to a grantee organization. The sponsor defines a series of requirements that dictate, for example: how the money may be used, when the money may be used, whether and how the grantee must perform cost-sharing between other revenue sources and the money committed by the sponsor, when the grantee may invoice the sponsor, how the grantee must report expenditures to be made against the grant, and how the grantee can charge overhead items, or indirect cost, to the sponsor. For public sector organizations, grants may fund a large percentage of the organizations' operations.
A grantee may solicit and win a variety of different grants from a variety of different sponsors. Typically, each grant is independently established and carries its own set of requirements. Thus, it may be administratively difficult for an organization to manage its operations on an ongoing basis and to determine, for a particular transaction (say, an expenditure of funds), whether the transaction satisfies the requirements of one or more grants. Without such oversight and control, however, it is reasonably likely that the grantee will perform a transaction that is not funded.
Enterprise management applications (“EMAs”) are commercially available from SAP, the assignee of the present invention, and others. EMAs are computer systems that are used by an organization during the course of its operation to monitor and manage transactions. For example, if an organization were to create a purchase order to buy goods, the EMA may generate financial documents to reflect the purchase on its general ledger accounts. The EMA also may determine whether the purchase order is acceptable under a budget established for the organization. EMAs may include a host of other processes designed to facilitate the operations of an organization.
The inventors identified a need in the art for a grants management system that is capable of managing expenditure transactions of a grantee organization and to ensure that the expenditures are consistent with the requirements of various grants. Currently, no known EMA considers the requirements of grants when determining whether to accept or reject a proposed transaction. Furthermore, no known EMA can show transactional information in each sponsor's terms.